34 



Again, two young batchelors, having arrived at the con- 

 clusion to add one rib to their stature, set about seeking, 

 each for himself, just such a one as shall best answer this 

 important end. It is more often the case, however, that the 

 choice is made first, and the arithmetic follows as a natural 

 consequence. The one chooses the beauty of the town, the 

 village belle, while the other is content with a very plain 

 sort of person, whom the first would have passed without 

 notice. The remark by the lookers on, at once is, that 

 " tastes differ, and there is no accounting for them." It is 

 an exceedingly fortunate circumstance, that this remark is 

 true in the above relation, for the mind would be unable to 

 conceive, or find language to describe and portray the con- 

 sequences to the world, which would arise from an opposite 

 condition of things. 



Fancy, or taste, which in this connexion, is to be defined 

 as a love for the beautiful in nature and art, is an inborn 

 faculty; but at the same time it depends almost entirely 

 upon cultivation or education for its growth and maturity. 

 The moment that we begin the study of any science, or the 

 practice of any art, each succeeding day unfolds to our 

 view new beauties, and new wonders, and we then first 

 learn to appreciate, as beautiful, those things which before 

 we looked upon with indifference, or even contempt. 



Every human being, at all elevated above the brute crea- 

 tion, by his mental organization, desires and seeks happiness. 

 Some in one way, and some in another. But no one can 

 realize it, in any elevated sense, otherwise than by the culti- 

 vation of those higher faculties with which he was endowed 

 by nature ; without bringing out and developing those pow- 

 ers of mind, the possession of which, so preeminently distin- 

 guishes man from all the rest of animated nature. 



One of these faculties, in the exercise of which there is no 

 thorn concealed beneath the flower, nor bitter mingled with 

 the sweet, is that of love for, and admiration of, the beauti- 

 ful. This is a gift which shows its workings even in the 



